Olive Garden Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Lynchburg

This used to be my favorite place to eat until Saturday when a friend and I went to have a quick bite before shopping! I’m just getting a salad which was both of our favorite things to get there so we figured it was a sure bet. When it came to the table was started eating and both of us on our first bike looked at each other. kind of funny something wasn’t right. I’m gonna look at each other and I told her it didn’t taste right it taste like it was dipped in toilet water. There was no taste of Italian dressing. It tasted like it. It sat overnight so we decided the best thing to do would be talked to the waitress. We showed her how some of the lettuce Wilson, and that was basically no dressing on the salad. She said she would have to talk to her manager Katt and get back with us. Katt came to the table right away I can tell she had no plan on agreeing with us on the salad. She tried everything was very rude and tried to tell us that the salad looked fine. I told her to take a bite. Then she also said the dressing looked fine. I told her that there was not any on there, and she said what looked pretty wet to her. I said you can’t even smell the dressing on the salad and if she stuck her finger in there, she wouldn’t be able to taste it and she still look like there was plenty on there to her with a very smart attitude. First of all I don’t think manager should have face piercings, but that’s just me. And she continue to say she could get us another salad. That’s very nice of her considering the first one gave my friend food poisoning as soon as we left the restaurant she threw up. It almost made me sick, but it took medicine before it did. She left the table. Very rudely did not apologize. Did not say sorry and she would be back she just left. The waitress came back with the ticket for my friend and for me. The manager decided to charge us four dollars each for our sodas was a shocked. How rude was that? Maybe we should’ve charged her for having to use the bathroom at Ross so friend could get sick. I will never go there again after that giving us a ticket for drinks after all miss giving us food poisoning was very rude on top of the fact that she had no table manners whatsoever to be a manager. Hopefully they’ll get this straight soon because I know I’m not going back any time...

TL;DR: There was a mouse scurrying around and the manager seemed to not care at all when we told her taking absolutely no action. Her response: "Oh wow thank's for telling me."

Full Story: Growing up I always loved Olive Garden. I went to this restaurant at least once a year for the last 22 years of my life because for the last 22 years I've gone there, if for no other occasion, on my birthday. This will most likely not be the case in the future and here is why.

Sunday night around 6pm I showed up to Olive Garden on Wards Road with my family. I brought my fiance and two kids with me because it was my fiance's birthday and she also loves Olive Garden so she actually requested it. The food was a little lack luster but that was to be expected, unfortunately the brand has become more corporatized overall and chef's, at least around here aren't as liberal with their delivery anymore. The gnocchi was okay, the salad was good, the kalamari was delicious and plentiful, the mozzarella sticks were great but when our main courses finally came out comprised of two kids menu pizza's, lack luster seemingly garlicless shrimp alfredo, and her soup, (she ordered soup and a salad instead of pasta, I know, psychotic...) and shortly after digging in my fiance noticed something. She pointed over to a booth directly in front of our table and said there was a mouse. I honestly thought she was messing with me until all of the sudden that little round shadow I thought I saw started moving, and ultimately dashed under the table next to us. It was in fact a mouse. I asked my fiance not to say it so loudly because I didn't want to ruin everyone else's night and quietly called the manager over. A lady presented herself and I asked if she was indeed the manager, which she confirmed, and then I informed her of the mouse and it's location. Now I understand discretion is a must but her response was so emotionless and uncaring that I honestly question whether or not they've done anything about it. Needless to say I don't believe I will be dining at this or possibly any other Olive Garden for a while with that kind...

While out shopping tonight my husband and I decided to grab dinner. We were close to Olive Garden, making it a top choice. We were seated in minutes, but it was fairly crowded on a Wednesday evening. The food: there has been some changes since we last visited. The first thing we noticed was the appetizer of unlimited breadsticks with unlimited dipping sauces for around $4.70. Let’s just say that was money well spent!! You get to choose between three out of this world, delicious dipping sauces~Alfredo, four cheese marinara, and then original marinara. All fabulous!!! My husband ordered the lasagna which was an enormous portion, and out of this world delicious!! It comes with unlimited breadsticks, and the option of unlimited soup or salad! I decided on the eggplant Parmesan that comes with a side of spaghetti, and also with unlimited breadsticks, and unlimited soup or salad. Huge portions and also delicious. We took home over half of meals, probably because we indulged a little too much on the unlimited breadsticks with the unlimited, dipping sauces! We were surprised how reasonably priced it was, especially considering the amount of food that we brought home for meals tomorrow! Now, I must mention our server, DESTINY (it may have been spelled Destenee) . From the moment she arrived at our table, till we said goodbye on our way out of the restaurant, she was absolutely lovely, joyful, professional, and we never needed one thing before she arrived at our table to deliver it. She was over the top outstanding. To the point if I were the manager I’d hire her to train all regional servers. She may be the best server we have ever had. So impressive. We will certainly request to sit in her section when we dine at Olive Garden again in the future. The manager stopped by the table to sure everything was great, which it was! Highly recommend the Lynchburg...